Hey guys,So today is the deadline for filing tax returns (IR3) and the IRD online services are down! Lol why do IRD fail so much @ IT? $1 billion to replace a computer system. Are you F***** serious?! I know that government clients are like gold mines but that is just getting to the laughable point!

To be fair to the IRD, their systems are quite old and were never built for online services to be run on top of them. I feel sorry for the IT folks that are running around like ER docs keeping that thing on life support at the moment as on Friday it was going in & out of consciousness.

myIR laugh: After I got into the site when it was working on Friday night and got everything submitted, the link to review my submission after the fact returned 404's, and on the main page my bank account number was quoted as 'NullPointerException'. Whoops!

On the plus side, if their Twitter account is anything to go by, they are at least open to the idea of the suggestion of better communications of the myIR status via a Status Page (https://twitter.com/NZInlandRevenue/status/485916332001488897) frustrating having to login to find out that it's still down.

The website's working for me. If you genuinely can't file/reach it, just ask for an extension and provided you have been meeting your payment obligations in the past, the IRD is most obliging.

I pretty much just ask for an extension every year because I tend to be ludicrously busy in July and, appallingly, this year I forgot all about this until this morning. Rang up around 9.30, asked for a call back and was called back inside 15 minutes. The person I spoke with was polite, efficient and all round wonderful to deal with. I know people like to rag on the IRD but Vodafone and a lot of other organisations can take a hint from those guys in terms of training up good CSRs and having efficient call centres.

dejadeadnz: The person I spoke with was polite, efficient and all round wonderful to deal with. I know people like to rag on the IRD but Vodafone and a lot of other organisations can take a hint from those guys in terms of training up good CSRs and having efficient call centres.

Yes, couldn't agree more, IRD CSRs are brilliant, I don't think I've ever had a 'bad apple', certainly better than the ATO, compare the two and it's like night and day.

In fact last year I was a bit frazzled when filing my IR3 and I mentioned I was going to declare a sum of money in one particular box (I was double checking a few things) and the CSR was all "hold-up, did you say ..., I don't think you need to declare that to us, let me check" turned an "I owe Govt" into "Govt owes Me" in the end.

dejadeadnz: The person I spoke with was polite, efficient and all round wonderful to deal with. I know people like to rag on the IRD but Vodafone and a lot of other organisations can take a hint from those guys in terms of training up good CSRs and having efficient call centres.

Yes, couldn't agree more, IRD CSRs are brilliant, I don't think I've ever had a 'bad apple', certainly better than the ATO, compare the two and it's like night and day.

In fact last year I was a bit frazzled when filing my IR3 and I mentioned I was going to declare a sum of money in one particular box (I was double checking a few things) and the CSR was all "hold-up, did you say ..., I don't think you need to declare that to us, let me check" turned an "I owe Govt" into "Govt owes Me" in the end.

Over the years every IRD CSR I spoke with would easily score 9 to 10 out of 10 for being pleasant, helpful, sensible and willing to go an extra mile. If they don't have an answer, they will make an effort to look it up and/or put you on hold, rather than just deflect your question with BS answers or by showing that they obviously have no product knowledge/understanding, which the worst contact centres (in my experience VF "leads" that pack, with anything associated with the Auckland Council a close second) frequently fall down on.

Also, the IRD CSRs actually sound educated and know how to speak properly. By this I don't mean the usual NZ ethnocentric rubbish of "They don't have accents!" (i.e. they speak like a Pakeha NZer and only that accent is acceptable) but rather the ability to construct proper sentences, enunciate words correctly, and actually understand that communication involves listening and then thinking about what you've heard before giving an answer.

Oh and the fact that they are capable of either taking my calls within a humanly reasonable period or offer a working, useful call back system that works every time. Again, this is something that most organisations can't seem to manage.

One of the great benefits of having an accountant - I don't have to worry about this stuff. They give me notice of payments coming up, they do any forms that need to be done and send them for my signature, and they cost less than $1000 a year. Totally worthwhile for me. I started out doing my own business taxes but decided it was too complex with two business, home office, overseas purchases and customers, etc, not worth my time.

timmmay: One of the great benefits of having an accountant - I don't have to worry about this stuff. They give me notice of payments coming up, they do any forms that need to be done and send them for my signature, and they cost less than $1000 a year. Totally worthwhile for me. I started out doing my own business taxes but decided it was too complex with two business, home office, overseas purchases and customers, etc, not worth my time.

Zeon: Hey guys,So today is the deadline for filing tax returns (IR3) and the IRD online services are down! Lol why do IRD fail so much @ IT? $1 billion to replace a computer system. Are you F***** serious?! I know that government clients are like gold mines but that is just getting to the laughable point!

Rant over.

Sorry Jono but you waited until the last day to file your return? That's like expecting to be able to watch the rugby on isky :P

Markhams Wellington. They change their business name every three months as they make new partnerships, but I've used them for a few years and I'm generally happy. Make sure you ask for what you want though - they can be full service, tax returns only, can do fixed price, etc.

Haha I am always later with stuff - pretty bad these days! Yea it came back and did it. TBH the calculation took me about 30 minutes due to meticulous record keeping all year.... So don't see the need for an accountant at this stage!

Zeon: Hey guys,So today is the deadline for filing tax returns (IR3) and the IRD online services are down! Lol why do IRD fail so much @ IT? $1 billion to replace a computer system. Are you F***** serious?! I know that government clients are like gold mines but that is just getting to the laughable point!

Rant over.

It was down last week too. My IR3 had been partially submitted when I had some webpage error.

I phoned IRD and said that they were having technical probs. But, in my experience they are having technical problems 75% of the time.

You just need to accept a lower standard of service from govt. Just wait until after their 1 billion dollar upgrade, it will be a disaster.

timmmay: One of the great benefits of having an accountant - I don't have to worry about this stuff. They give me notice of payments coming up, they do any forms that need to be done and send them for my signature, and they cost less than $1000 a year. Totally worthwhile for me. I started out doing my own business taxes but decided it was too complex with two business, home office, overseas purchases and customers, etc, not worth my time.

$1000 a year sounds extremely cheap for what you describe. In fact, that would be the cheapest accountant ever. Even 10 years ago you couldn't get one for that price.